The 1959 season

Tropical Storm Ruby (1959)

Tropical Storm Ruby peaked at 50 kt in the Western Pacific between February 26, 1959 and March 1, 1959, with a lowest pressure of 998 mb.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Tropical Storm Ruby, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1959 season in the same basin behind it, and its wind and pressure hour by hour. Every fix is in the track table below.

Open the live map with storms, cones and warnings

The storm

Basin
Western Pacific
Dates
February 26, 1959 to March 1, 1959
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 50 kt (58 mph)
Lowest pressure
998 mb (29.47 inHg)
Landfall
No; closest approach 270 km (168 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
1.7
Identifier
WP011959

Deaths and damage

No source this site reads publishes a machine-readable casualty or damage figure for a storm of this era. The National Hurricane Center’s season tables begin in 1995 and carry deaths and damage only from 2005 in the Atlantic and 2020 in both basins; the US Storm Events record begins in 1996.

Track

Time (UTC)PositionWindPressureStatus
Feb 26, 18:008.9N 140.6ETropical storm
Feb 27, 00:008.8N 140.0E50 kt998 mbTropical storm
Feb 27, 06:008.8N 139.5E50 kt998 mbTropical storm
Feb 27, 12:008.5N 139.0E50 kt998 mbTropical storm
Feb 27, 18:008.3N 137.0E50 kt998 mbTropical storm
Feb 28, 00:008.2N 136.3E50 kt998 mbTropical storm
Feb 28, 06:008.7N 134.9E45 kt998 mbTropical storm
Feb 28, 12:009.0N 133.7E40 kt998 mbTropical storm
Feb 28, 18:009.2N 132.5E35 kt998 mbTropical storm
Mar 1, 00:009.0N 131.2E30 kt998 mbTropical storm
Mar 1, 06:008.0N 130.0E25 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Mar 1, 12:006.8N 129.0E1000 mbMixed

Other Western Pacific storms of 1959

What this means

A best track is the record a warning agency settles on after the storm, not what it said at the time: position, maximum sustained wind and central pressure every six hours, revised against every observation that came in later. Category is the Saffir-Simpson scale, which runs from Category 1 at 64 kt to Category 5 at 137 kt and reads wind only, so it says nothing about surge or rain. Accumulated cyclone energy adds up the square of the wind through the storm's life, so it counts strength and duration together.

Sources

Storm history from NOAA NCEI’s International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship (IBTrACS), which merges the official best track of every warning agency. Live storms, cones, watches and warnings from the National Hurricane Center and the Central Pacific Hurricane Center. Archived radar from NOAA’s Level II archive.